Worthy is the Lamb
that was slain
“the good news of God.”
After
the arrest of
John the Baptist,
"Jesus came into Galilee,
proclaiming
the
gospel of God,
and saying,
"The time is fulfilled,
and the
kingdom of God
is at hand;
repent
and
believe in the gospel’”
(Mark 1:14–15, ESV).
Jesus’ exhortation for His
listeners
to repent indicated that they needed to
change their minds.
That He told them to believe in the gospel indicated
how they needed to change their minds.
Mark refers to
Jesus’ message as
“the gospel of God”
It was good news that
the kingdom was at hand,
and Jesus was
preparing
His listeners for how to be
part
of that kingdom.
Many in Jesus’ audience -thought- they
were
-already righteous-
and would gain entrance
to the kingdom of God because of their
connection to Abraham and Moses
and because they were
keeping the laws God had
given to Israel
through Moses.
Matthew 5—7records Jesus’
Sermon on the Mount,
in which
Jesus taught that
His
listeners should
change their minds
about how they
could be part of
His kingdom.
Their connection
to
Abraham and Moses
wasn’t enough,
and their supposedly
righteous deeds were not enough.
Those things
are not what God requires
as the
standard of righteousness.
Instead,
Jesus explained that they needed to have
a true, internal righteousness,
and they did
-not yet- have that.
It wasn’t just a king that they needed--
they needed a savior.
Jesus proclaimed
that the people needed to repent and
believe in the
gospel
because the kingdom of God is
at hand.
God’s eternal kingdom is currently
based in heaven.
But, in passages like 2 Samuel 7 and Revelation 19—20,
God promises that
His kingdom
will come to earth in a physical form.
The kingdom is at hand,
or near,
because Jesus the King had come to earth,
presenting the kingdom and the
good news
about that kingdom and how one can be part of it--
by believing in the gospel.
Jesus’ audience wasn’t yet prepared for the kingdom,
because they
hadn’t
yet
recognized
that they needed
the Messiah
to make them righteous,
and that
Jesus is
the
Messiah.
They needed to believe in the Lord--
as
Abraham had done many years prior
(Genesis 15:6)--
to gain the righteousness
that would
allow them to be part of
God’s kingdom.
They
needed to repent
(change their minds about how they could enter the kingdom)
and
believe in the gospel
now,
because the kingdom of God was
close at hand.
Many
did change their minds about
how they could be righteous,
and they believed in
Jesus,
(Mark 3:22–30).
Because
of that rejection,
Jesus delayed the kingdom
and
shifted
His focus and ministry
to providing the
sacrifice to pay for the sins of the people.
We had set our mind on the things above
rather than on the things
of earth
(Colossians 3:1–4).